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Wheat stripe rust (yellow rust), caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici ( Pst ), is an important airborne disease worldwide. Pst inoculum strength in southern Henan in winter or early spring is important for spring epidemics in the main autumn-sown wheat-growing regions of China. However, there is limited knowledge about the source and time of initial infection on winter wheat in southern Henan. The first occurrence of wheat stripe rust in southern Henan was recorded annually from 2011 to 2022, from which we used the backward trajectory approach to infer the likely source of Pst inoculum responsible for the initial disease occurrence. The results suggested that the Pst inoculum responsible for initial rust established in the winter in southern Henan originated from the Gansu Pst oversummering area in China, whereas it originated from the adjacent winter Pst sporulation regions in southern Shaanxi and northwestern Hubei if Pst symptoms were first observed in early spring in southern Henan. Another possible Pst source is southern Hubei where Pst can also sporulate in the winter. Thus, early Pst development in winter in the main wheat production region in China (Henan) is likely to be caused by Pst inoculum spread from the oversummering inocula or Pst epidemics in autumn seedlings in Gansu., Competing Interests: The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.